Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

15 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT Less than a quarter of NICUs conduct social determinants of health screenings By Bari Faye Dean L ess than 25 percent of neonatal intensive care units across the U.S. screen for universal social determinants of health, according to a study published Nov. 1 in Hospital Pediatrics. e American Academy of Pediatrics' universal screening recommendations, issued in 2016, provide guidelines for how clinicians should approach families during routine pediatric clinical visits when social determinants of health — including housing and food insecurity — are suspected. Further, the AAP suggested these families be referred to community resources as appropriate. However, a longer stay in a NICU provides physicians with time to address potential concerns. According to study researchers from Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, only 23 percent of NICUs routinely screen for social determinants of health. "Given the extended opportunities for provider-family interaction over the prolonged neonatal hospitalization, this represents a missed opportunity to address the high burden of unmet social needs among families of high-risk infants," Dr. Erika Cordova Ramos, neonatologist, assistant professor of pediatrics and first author of the study, said in a Dec. 15 news release. Many physicians at the 100 level 2 to 4 NICUs included in the study from across the U.S. said it was feasible to conduct social determinants of health screenings, and said they believed doing so should be prioritized in NICUs because of the ultimate benefit community resource referrals would have on needy families. Clinician leaders surveyed throughout the U.S. from January to November 2021 said screenings were not being conducted because of a perceived lack of community resources and lack of an inpatient screening tool. "Further investigation of optimal implementation strategies of SDH screening in US NICUs is needed," Dr. Cordova Ramos said. n Subtle brain performance changes could predict infection risk By Mariah Taylor R esearchers at the Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan may have found a way to predict risk of infection using cognitive performance tests. The study, published in Scientific Reports on Dec. 30, asked 18 healthy participants to take brain performance tests three times per day for three days before exposing them to a cold virus. The tests provided 18 measures of cognitive function, including reaction time, attention and rapid switching. Cognitive variability accurately predicted how the immune system performed after exposure to a respiratory virus, researchers said. "This is the first exposure study in humans to show that one's cognitive performance before exposure to a respiratory virus can predict the severity of the infection," Alfred Hero, PhD, an electrical engineering and computer science professor at the university and a corresponding author of the study, told Michigan News. The researchers said smartphones could be used to identify times of heightened susceptibility to illness by monitoring cognitive indicators such as typing speed and accuracy. n Atlanta hospital gets 1st maternal levels of care designation from The Joint Commission By Erica Carbajal N orthside Hospital in Atlanta is the first in the country to receive a Maternal Levels of Care Verification from The Joint Commission. The maternal health verification program was launched in 2022 and involves an on-site review of maternal services by The Joint Commission, which then makes a determination on the hospital's level of maternal care. Northside Hospital — which delivers more babies than any other hospital in the U.S. — received a level IV designation, meaning it provides "medical and surgical care of the most complex maternal conditions and critically ill pregnant women," according to a Dec. 29 news release. The care level determination was made in partnership with the Georgia Department of Public Health. "The Joint Commission congratulates Northside Hospital on this outstanding achievement," Brian Enochs, the accrediting body's executive vice president of business development and marketing, said in a statement. "Through the Maternal Levels of Care Verification program, we look forward to working closely with hospitals to identify areas where they may need to strengthen risk-appropriate care to match their population — helping to make care safer for mothers and their babies." n

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